XFL looks like it’s coming back 17 years later

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Vince McMahon, seen nearly 18 years ago announcing that his World Wrestling Federation was starting an eight-team pro football league known as the XFL, is reportedly resurrecting the league to begni in 2020. (The Associated Press)

After almost two decades, the Xtreme might get a chance to defend their championship.

The XFL, which had a meteoric rise-and-fall run through the pro-sports landscape in 2000-01, apparently is returning. Vince McMahon, owner of World Wrestling Entertainment and co-owner of the original, self-styled rebel football league, has scheduled a news conference for noon today.

According to several media reports, McMahon will announce the return of the XFL, possibly in 2020.

It’s not yet known whether a team would be placed in Southern California, although the Los Angeles Xtreme were one of the eight original XFL teams and played their home games at the Coliseum.

The Xtreme, led by former UCLA quarterback Tommy Maddox, beat the San Francisco Demons in the championship game — dubbed the “Million Dollar Game” because of bonuses given out to the winners — but only 24,153 came to the Coliseum that day and the XFL already seemed doomed.

The league started with plenty of potential and panache, when McMahon held a news conference in February 2000 and announced he would form an equal partnership with NBC and form a pro football league.

At that news conference, McMahon said, “Where’s the kind of football that the NFL used to be? Where’s my smash-mouth, wide-open football? It’s gone. … We will take you places the NFL is afraid to take you, because we’re not afraid of anything.”

McMahon didn’t hesitate. The league held its draft in October 2000 and its first game Feb. 3, 2001, exactly one year after the initial announcement. The game drew a huge rating on NBC, but the play was ragged. The next week, technical difficulties knocked the broadcast off the air.

The XFL sold itself as a bold, testosterone-fueled league. Wrestling announcers called the game, and McMahon attempted various televised stunts that involved team cheerleaders.

Quality of play seemed secondary. Rod Smart became the most famous of the players, because the XFL allowed personalized jerseys and his read, “He Hate Me.” Players earned a maximum of $5,000 per game week and had no health insurance, and the level of play clearly was a step down from the NFL.

Attendance and television ratings dwindled throughout the season, and in May 2001, less than one month after the Xtreme won the championship, McMahon closed the XFL shop.

The league, in some ways, left a positive legacy. The way NBC covered the games, with the use of “sky cams” and on-field cams, would be copied at the NFL and college levels. The XFL also experimented with extra-point rules (although its “opening scramble” in place of a coin flip never got traction elsewhere).

Some players enjoyed post-XFL success, most notably Maddox, who eventually became an NFL starting quarterback and won a Super Bowl ring with Pittsburgh in 2006.

The XFL became something of a running joke in pro sports, but McMahon never let the dream totally die. Rumors of a reboot got fueled recently when McMahon, now 72 years old, sold $100 million of WWE stock. McMahon took over control of the successful wrestling organization from his father in 1982.

Rich Hammond was a high school senior when the Rams left town in 1995, and now he's their beat writer for the Southern California News Group. A native of L.A., Rich broke in at the Daily Breeze as a college freshman and also has covered USC, the Kings, the Lakers and the Dodgers. He still loves sports and telling stories. Don't take the sarcastic tweets too seriously.